Pearl Harbor lecture series continues in Southbury

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT), Sandra Diamond Fox CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Published
1:00 am EST, Friday, January 16, 2009

SOUTHBURY--The bombing was like someone pulling a curtain down. I knew my life would never be the same," town resident Nan Rubin told about 40 people who attended her lecture Thursday at the Watermark at East Hill retirement community.

It was the second session in her three-part "Surviving Pearl Harbor" series.

Rubin, now 83, was 16 in December 1941, when the Japanese attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. She heard the bombing from her home on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

"The war didn't just happen. For many years leading up to it, we knew it was coming. We just didn't know when," said Rubin, as all eyes followed her.

When she was young, Rubin and her parents would often go to celebrations on the military post. "There I would see admirals, generals, and other highly ranked officers. I thought this was a normal part of childhood," she said.

From her family's beach home, Rubin had a clear view of Pearl Harbor.

"At 8 o'clock in the morning on Dec. 7, I was having a quiet breakfast at home with my parents when it suddenly got very noisy outside. We heard many bombs flying overhead.

"When my father turned on the radio, we learned that the Japanese were attacking us."

In the two-hour assault, the Japanese navy sank nine U.S. ships and 21 others were severely damaged. The death toll reached 2,350.

The attack was responsible for bringing the U.S. into World War II.

Right after the bombing, Rubin's father went to military headquarters to see how he could help. He was told to set up a central feeding station. He also donated blood.

"As soon as we were bombed, all schooling stopped. The classrooms were needed to train members of the military who were being brought in," said Rubin, who was then a tenth-grader.

School resumed in late February, and one day in music class Rubin and her classmates looked out the window and witnessed a sight she will never forget.

"An American destroyer was dropping depth bombs. They went down into the water and destroyed the submarines. We were only a few miles away from it all."

Later, Southbury resident
Alvin Laster
, 86, said he was impressed with Rubin's lecture. "If you ask most people who were around when Pearl Harbor was bombed, they'll be able to tell you where they were and what they were doing on that day."

Laster was a pharmacist in New Jersey at the time. "Right after it happened, many young men rushed to sign up for the military," he said.

Patrick Cassidy
, 70, of Southbury, said, "I'm a big history buff. While I've read quite a bit about these events, it was fascinating to hear someone who was actually there. It was better than any book."

Rubin, a retired schoolteacher and librarian, said she enjoys talking in front of groups, but she had never shared her memories of Pearl Harbor in public before. The mother of two and grandmother of one felt the time had finally come.

"It was bottled up inside me for so long. I think people should know what happened."

The third free lecture in the "Surviving Pearl Harbor" series will be Thursday at 1 p.m., at the Watermark, 611 East Hill Road.

It will detail the aftermath of the attack and the Navy-escorted journey Rubin and other family members made to San Francisco, leaving her father behind in Hawaii.